Thank fucking god. Nate Anderson thinks when he wakes up with no sign of a hangover. He easily sits up from his bed, swings his legs to the edge, and heads right for the bathroom. A quick shower and a toothbrush later, he’s all fresh and ready to take on the day. And that means walking over to his home office – the third and smallest room of his three-bedroom apartment – and getting to work.
When he retired from the military, he was given quite the hefty lump sum payout after having been in service for over two decades. He previously thought of using the money to take a couple of graduate degrees, work part-time, and save the bulk for retirement. But he couldn’t deny the call of entrepreneurship tugging at his heart. With no debt and only the determination and willpower to succeed, Nate was able to lift his business off the ground. He raked in millions of dollars in the two years he’s been in business, and a few months ago, he was invited by Forbes for an exclusive interview and to be on the cover of the month’s issue.
With his experience in the intelligence department of the Army, Nate knew it would be a strategic move for him to ride the technology wave. Now his software company is still experiencing month-on-month growth even after two years in operation.
When he finishes his cup of coffee – black – he reaches for his tablet at the end of his desk and starts coming up with designs for the company’s next line of software products. It’s only when his stomach starts grumbling and he realizes it’s already two in the afternoon that he decides to eat his first meal for the day. He walks over to his refrigerator and whips up his specialty – omelet. There hasn’t really been much downtime in his life since he retired from the military to learn how to cook. Even then, he wouldn’t be spending his free time cooking. Eating yes; cooking, no.
‘Run later?’
‘Need to lose the beer weight from last night.’
He reads the messages, both from Alex. He types up a quick ‘yes’, sends it, and continues answering his other pile of unread messages and emails. He knows he has to hire another secretary to do his more menial tasks, but he’s not looking forward to the headaches that are bound to come. Just in the past year, he had already hired three secretaries, and he had to fire all of them after they underperformed. They were all great at the start though, and Nate was giving them raises every month. Until he slept with them, and suddenly, they all felt they were entitled not to work anymore just because he brought them lunch and dinner and invited them to his home. He even thought they were all girlfriend-material. That was until they stopped working.
If he has to have one peeve, it has to be people who can’t stand up on their own. He’s always been attracted to women who value work and career success. It shows dedication and strength which trickle down to other aspects of their lives. He breaks his train of thought and snaps his head back to reality. Work. He has to work.
During the afternoon, he spends a few hours creating different agendas for tomorrow’s weekly reports. Every Monday, he meets with each department to go over last week’s performance. Nate prefers to keep the meetings short, and as long as his colleagues answer his questions with proper reasoning backed up by numbers, he doesn’t stretch the meetings any longer. These are what the agendas are for; they serve as a guide of questions and focus points to keep the reports brief.
When he finishes all business-related work, Nate reaches for his every-trusty phone and goes through his notifications. He sees a few from Love in the Net, an online dating site he joined a few months ago.
What makes the company different is it isn’t afraid to challenge stereotypes. The site is more open (meaning, less conservative) than others and even offers a special ‘mail-order bride’ feature. There have been online protests to take down the site, but with the huge customer base and ever-increasing profits generated by the company, non-supporters are only going against a corporation that’ll cost them millions of dollars to bring to court.
Nate has never used the bride order option though. He’s never seen a profile yet that interested him enough. He’s thought about tinkering with the option and playing around – there is a choice to refund – but he honestly doesn’t have time for that. He opens his Love in the Net notifications and sees the ranking page for the site’s most eligible women.
The sight of fiery red hair catches his attention and a click to enlarge the picture reveals striking emerald eyes. The thing about the rankings page is that one has to pay an additional fee to be able to message the top placers. The company has deemed them the ‘most eligible’ through a serious of factors, face and body quality, intelligence, personality, and sexual experience to name a few. They’re the crème of the crop, and of course, they have to come at a price. Nate bookmarks the woman’s profile. Maybe, after he has a drink with Alex, he’ll be drunk enough to actually pay to message a woman.
“Let’s have a drink after this?” Nate then asks when he arrives in the marina. He’s standing in front of his yacht with Alex already in it.
“You know it.”
When they’re both onboard, Nate revs the engine to life and speeds away. They’re headed towards the small island a half-hour ride away. The island has got to be the most extravagant in Nate’s long list of real estate properties. He has a cabin in the Alps, a beach house, and condominiums in San Francisco, New York, London, and Hong Kong. He has his eyes set on an entire building right here in Black Creek; maybe, that he can buy after he develops the island and it starts generating income. For now, he’s happy with what the island can presently offer – the thicket of forest and a bungalow right by the beach.
“I’ve been waiting all day for this,” Alex then says, starting to shed off his clothes.
“You do know if someone else heard that, you’d come off as a creep?” Nate tries his best not to bark out a laugh. “See, I knew this island was a great investment.”
“Personal investment, yes…financial investment, not so much yet.” When he’s stark naked on the beach, Alex walks towards the perimeter of the forest and squints his eyes. “I think I want deer or salmon tonight.”
This time, Nate elicits a full-on laugh. “How fancy. Sashimi style?”
“If only…”
Nate trails behind Alex and follows him deeper into the forest. Under a canopy of century-old trees, they revel in the quiet of the night under the gleam of the crescent moon. When they close their eyes, they suddenly feel the metamorphosis, their bodies shifting into different forms. They feel the cool air brush against their fur, much thicker now and in a palette of jet-black. Their head swipes against branches of trees as they shoot up in height. When, Alex opens his mouth, he elicits a grunt. Then, he turns his head to the side to get a glimpse of Nate behind him. In his friend’s place is a majestic ebony-coated bear standing on its hind legs, and when Alex tips his head downwards, he sees he’s sporting the same jet-black fur. Then, his claws rake the brittle dirt beneath them.
He has been waiting all day for this. It’s been a few days since they shifted into their bear forms and went on a midnight escape. Not to mention, he still has salmon to catch.